Ying joined Birmingham in January 2023 as Assistant Professor in Organisation, Work and Employment. She was previously Lecturer in Work and Employment (2020-22) at the University of Leicester. She had also held teaching positions at Warwick Business School and the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick (2018-2020), as well as an early career fellowship at the Warwick Institute of Advanced Study.
Before moving to the UK in 2014, Ying worked on labour policy research and advocacy, as well as labour education in southern China, where she developed her research interests in working lives of migrant workers in the manufacturing sector. Her doctoral research examined how workers learn about pay on the shopfloor and how workplace dynamics shapes the ways in which they accumulate pay knowledge and contest pay-related practices in Chinese factories from a labour process perspective.
Since 2020, Ying has expanded her geographical focus to the UK for a broader research agenda on pay transparency, job quality, and equality, diversity and inclusion. She is keen on collaborating with organisations beyond academia, such as trade unions, professional bodies, employer associations and community organisations to advocate responsible and inclusive employment practices.